Tuesday, 18 February 2014

Chocolate and Almond Mousse Cake

You may need to burn a few calories after tackling my favourite easy cake, the chocolate mousse cake. Rich, buttery and intense with high cocoa content, it is a crowd pleaser pretty much all of the time. I love the chestnut version - so seasonal and a brilliant alternative for Christmas pudding for chocolate lovers. But I also love almonds, and with ground almonds surely being a staple cupboard ingredient for everybody, you can whip one of these up in no time.

1 - Preheat the oven to 180C/GM4.
2 - Break up the chocolate and put into a heatproof bowl along with the butter. Place over a pan of water and bring to the boil until the chocolate and butter have melted.
3 - Separate the eggs. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, vanilla seeds and sugar until pale. Stir in the chocolate and butter and then finally, gently fold in the ground almonds and the sliced almonds.
4 - Whisk the egg whites until they reach 'soft peak' stage, or you can hold the bowl upside down and nothing falls out. Gently fold into the mixture.
5 - Grease and paper a 20cm spring form cake tin. Pour in the cake mixture, then place on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the cake is still slightly wobbly and the surface has cracked.
6 - Remove and rest until cool. Decorate with cocoa powder and a handful of sliced almonds.

David, from what I hear from my family Miserabilism has spread across the Channel to Germany as well, and my friend in France has seen it appear over theretoo. ;) With a cake like that I'm sure it can all be overcome though!

What a gorgeous recipe :) David, your wonderful cake seems to have conquered any miserable thoughts your readers may have had :) Hopefully food will help solve the Miserabilism every where - First the blogosphere, then the world!!!

I was just revisiting to see if my comment had appeared as my internet connection died the other night when I was leaving one, so I wasn't sure if it went through. I cannot remember my exact wording, but I am sure it could be summed up by yum, yum, yum :P